The coleslaw served with North Carolina BBQ often uses a tangy vinegar base instead of mayo. This is our recipe for North Carolina vinegar coleslaw. It goes perfect with North Carolina style pulled pork.

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North Carolina Vinegar Coleslaw

Dave Cole

Instead of mayo this North Carolina vinegar coleslaw uses a tangy vinegar sauce. This is traditionally served along with pulled pork shoulder. It is a traditional part of many southern BBQs, especially in North Carolina.

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 5

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Servings 8

Ingredients

Coleslaw

1 Head Cabbage
2 carrots
1 cup Carolina Vinegar Sauce
½ cup vegetable oil

Carolina Vinegar Sauce

2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons ketchup
2 Tablespoons hot sauce Texas Pete, Franks, Crystal
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

Sauce

To make the sauce combine ingredients in a pan. Whisk to dissolve salt and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer. Let cool and store in a jar.
Heating is not necessary. In a pinch you can simply add all the ingredients to a jar and shake.

Coleslaw

Prepare North Carolina BBQ Vinegar Sauce. Shred cabbage and carrots using a knife or mandoline. Place in bowl. Combine 1 cup of vinegar sauce and a half cup of oil. Add to sliced cabbage and mix well.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Keyword BBQ, Coleslaw, Pulled Pork

NOTE: This is just one of many styles of coleslaw. My family prefers this recipe but personally I like my recipe where the cabbage is finely chopped in a food processor. This recipe is even easier and it is similar to what you find in many North Carolina BBQ establishments.

Cole Cooks: North Carolina Coleslaw Recipe

In North Carolina there is a style of coleslaw that is vinegar based. This coleslaw does not use mayonnaise and has a bit of kick. This North Carolina Coleslaw recipe is a favorite to serve with pulled pork. Go To Recipe North Carolina style pulled pork is easy to make. Our preferred method is to […]

My last name is Cole but normally I hate coleslaw because it has mayonnaise. However, the coleslaw in much of North Carolina is a different beast. They replace the mayo with a vinegar style marinade/dressing. This dressing is based on North Carolina’s wonderful tangy vinegar BBQ sauce.

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We have a full recipe for making the versatile North Carolina vinegar BBQ sauce. We like to make this sauce using a 32-ounce bottle of Bragg’s apple cider vinegar. After making the sauce we pour it back into the original bottle and store it in the refrigerator. That way we always have some on hand.

Cole Cooks: North Carolina BBQ Vinegar Sauce Recipe

North Carolina is known for its wonderful pork BBQ. I went to University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and must say it is my favorite style of BBO. What makes it so special is the sauce. There are actually several types of North Carolina BBQ Sauces. This is a recipe for my favorite North Carolina BBQ Vinegar […]

Even if you don’t have some on hand this sauce is super easy to make. The entire coleslaw recipe can be made in 15-minutes. You can also make it ahead of time as it will only improve as flavors combine.

Cole Cooks: Big Green Egg North Carolina Pulled Pork

The Big Green Egg is perfect for cooking North Carolina pulled pork. We add our rub and use our classic North Carolina vinegar sauce. This recipe is easy to prepare but it does take an entire day of cooking. Go To Recipe Much of my family is from North Carolina and I attended the University […]

To make North Carolina vinegar coleslaw you simply finely chop the cabbage and carrots and add the vinegar sauce mixed with some oil. Toss in like a salad and you are done.

To slice the cabbage we use our fancy Mafter mandoline. We received this as a wedding present. It gets the job done, but we would recommend a cheaper mandoline. There are some inexpensive ones that actually get better reviews than our mandoline. Our Mafter mandoline goes for about $250. If we had to buy one on our own we would look at one of the mandolines around $50.

Some we would recommend looking into include:

Benriner Almond Wide Slicer

This did well in both professional reviews and among readers

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Swissmar Broner V-1000

This received top awards from Cook’s Illustrated and has really strong Amazon reviews

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Mueller Austria V-Pro Multi-Blade

This i s budget priced unit with many excellent Amazon reviews

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A mandolin makes life easy but you can always just chop the cabbage by hand or try a food processor. If you use a mandolin just make sure to be careful and wear protective gloves!

Serving this coleslaw with BBQ is essential. Be sure and check out our methods for cooking pulled pork. We normally use our Big Green Egg, but also have an oven and sous vide method.

Go here for general Big Green Egg tips

Cole Cooks: Big Green Egg Overview

At Fun Diego Family we love our Big Green Egg. We have owned our Big Green Egg since 2011. It has been surprisingly maintenance free. This is an overview of our experience with the BIg Green Egg along with some of our favorite recipes. Introducing the Big Green Egg The Big Green Egg is a […]

Cole Cooks: Sous Vide North Carolina Pulled Pork Recipe

We love North Carolina style pulled pork. This is a tangy version of BBQ that features a spicy vinegar sauce. Traditionally this is cooked for hours on a smoker. However, visiting friends in North Carolina we found a way to do this in the oven. We took is a step further and created this version […]

Cole Cooks: North Carolina Vinegar Coleslaw Recipe